Dogs
By Linda Cole
I'm always interested in reading new studies done about dogs that help us better understand our relationship with them. Dr. Monique Udell is someone who has her name attached to many of these studies. One recent study conducted by Dr. Udell and her research team explores whether dogs can read our minds. I may not always agree with her findings, but she is an important researcher who is unlocking our dogs mind so we can properly care for them by understanding how they think, their amazing ability to understand us, and why they do the things they do.
Dr. Monique Udell is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. In 2006, she helped set up the Canine Cognition and Behavior Lab at the college to primarily study the social behavior of dogs and the human/dog bond. Her research deals with the social behavior of dogs and how they understand us through observation, reasoning and instinct. The studies ascertain that dogs show remarkable awareness in decision making when interacting with us, and explore how well dogs can understand our gestures, facial expression and body language. Shelter dogs that have never been in a home environment or have been in a shelter for a long time don't respond to humans as well as a dog living in a home or wolves that have daily interactions with their caretakers. Pet dogs and wolves both show they have us figured out and can read us pretty well.
Her work involves canines with different life experiences, like shelter dogs versus family dogs, and compares them with tame wolves, foxes and coyotes to see how they respond to our gestures and body language. She studies the adaptability of the canine social behavior and how it corresponds to living with humans. We have the ability to influence dogs through training and reinforcement. The research done by Dr. Udell and her team is a new way of trying to understand the importance of our interactions with dogs and other canids in the Canidae family. This new way of thinking about our relationship with dogs came after she had visited the Wolf Park in Battle Ground, Indiana and studied how wolves raised by humans and dogs interacted with each other and with their humans. The studies done at the Wolf Park help researchers learn how they read and respond to us, and what kind of signals they show to us.
One interesting ongoing behavioral study Udell is conducting at Wolf Park is showing how early socialization and interaction with humans changes young wolves and coyotes behavior towards us. They are able to pick up on our behavior and understand the signals we put out just like a properly socialized dog can. Dr. Udell has worked with a variety of different species as an animal behavior consultant to zoos, and is an instructor for an online course dealing with dog training and consulting for dog owners, breeders and trainers. Dr. Udell and the findings of her research team have been highlighted in Psychology Today, the New York Times, Huffington Post, Science Daily, Discovery News, Nova Science Now and a variety of other publications.
The research Dr. Udell and her team do is important in that it gives us a better understanding of how dogs react to us. It took centuries for dogs to become domesticated and the interaction we have with them is due to their ability to adapt to us. By working with human-raised wolves and comparing them to dogs living with a family, she's has given us important insight into the mind of both animals to understand and interact with us. And that insight can also give us an idea of how man was able to domesticate dogs. Or maybe it was dogs who figured us out a long time ago and it was humans who adapted to them. Either way, our relationship with our dogs is a unique interaction with an animal that has the ability to observe our gestures, body language, moods and tone of voice.
We share the earth with different species, some more wild than others, and the important work of researchers like Dr. Udell help us see an animal kingdom filled with amazing creatures. Researchers working with wolves have given us a different view of a misunderstood animal that has the ability to adapt to humans just like our domesticated dogs did centuries ago.
Photo by Dave Wild
Read more articles by Linda Cole
- How Dogs Get The Point: What Enables Canines To Interpret Human Gestures?
Guest post by: Lucia Lazarowski, PhD candidate. Her research is available via free promotional access in the journal Behavioural Processes until February, 2016. Hi Mia and Julie, As a long-time fan of the blog, it is an honor to be a guest contributor!...
- Can Dogs Really Understand Our Words?
By Linda Cole Anyone who has lived and interacted with dogs knows how closely they pay attention to our words. I've even been known to spell out my intentions in an attempt to keep my dogs from knowing what I'm saying so they don't get overly...
- New Research Explains Why Dogs Aren't Wolves
By Linda Cole I admire the spirit of wolves, an animal who has found the world to be a hostile place, even though man has embraced a species that was born from them. There are similarities between dogs and wolves, but dogs are not wolves. The reason why...
- Are All Dogs Descendants Of Wolves?
By Linda Cole Through responsible breeding and centuries of domestication, dogs are certainly man's best friend. But how much of their ancestral instincts have dogs maintained even with continued breeding that has calmed ancient instincts? I sometimes...
- The Origin Of The Domesticated Dog
The domestic dog, aka Canis lupus familiaris, originated in the domestication of the gray wolf (Canis lupus). The domestication process continues even today, if we consider the fact that the cross-breeding of dogs in order to create "designer dogs"...
Dogs
The Canine Behavior Studies of Dr. Udell
I'm always interested in reading new studies done about dogs that help us better understand our relationship with them. Dr. Monique Udell is someone who has her name attached to many of these studies. One recent study conducted by Dr. Udell and her research team explores whether dogs can read our minds. I may not always agree with her findings, but she is an important researcher who is unlocking our dogs mind so we can properly care for them by understanding how they think, their amazing ability to understand us, and why they do the things they do.
Dr. Monique Udell is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida. In 2006, she helped set up the Canine Cognition and Behavior Lab at the college to primarily study the social behavior of dogs and the human/dog bond. Her research deals with the social behavior of dogs and how they understand us through observation, reasoning and instinct. The studies ascertain that dogs show remarkable awareness in decision making when interacting with us, and explore how well dogs can understand our gestures, facial expression and body language. Shelter dogs that have never been in a home environment or have been in a shelter for a long time don't respond to humans as well as a dog living in a home or wolves that have daily interactions with their caretakers. Pet dogs and wolves both show they have us figured out and can read us pretty well.
Her work involves canines with different life experiences, like shelter dogs versus family dogs, and compares them with tame wolves, foxes and coyotes to see how they respond to our gestures and body language. She studies the adaptability of the canine social behavior and how it corresponds to living with humans. We have the ability to influence dogs through training and reinforcement. The research done by Dr. Udell and her team is a new way of trying to understand the importance of our interactions with dogs and other canids in the Canidae family. This new way of thinking about our relationship with dogs came after she had visited the Wolf Park in Battle Ground, Indiana and studied how wolves raised by humans and dogs interacted with each other and with their humans. The studies done at the Wolf Park help researchers learn how they read and respond to us, and what kind of signals they show to us.
One interesting ongoing behavioral study Udell is conducting at Wolf Park is showing how early socialization and interaction with humans changes young wolves and coyotes behavior towards us. They are able to pick up on our behavior and understand the signals we put out just like a properly socialized dog can. Dr. Udell has worked with a variety of different species as an animal behavior consultant to zoos, and is an instructor for an online course dealing with dog training and consulting for dog owners, breeders and trainers. Dr. Udell and the findings of her research team have been highlighted in Psychology Today, the New York Times, Huffington Post, Science Daily, Discovery News, Nova Science Now and a variety of other publications.
The research Dr. Udell and her team do is important in that it gives us a better understanding of how dogs react to us. It took centuries for dogs to become domesticated and the interaction we have with them is due to their ability to adapt to us. By working with human-raised wolves and comparing them to dogs living with a family, she's has given us important insight into the mind of both animals to understand and interact with us. And that insight can also give us an idea of how man was able to domesticate dogs. Or maybe it was dogs who figured us out a long time ago and it was humans who adapted to them. Either way, our relationship with our dogs is a unique interaction with an animal that has the ability to observe our gestures, body language, moods and tone of voice.
We share the earth with different species, some more wild than others, and the important work of researchers like Dr. Udell help us see an animal kingdom filled with amazing creatures. Researchers working with wolves have given us a different view of a misunderstood animal that has the ability to adapt to humans just like our domesticated dogs did centuries ago.
Photo by Dave Wild
Read more articles by Linda Cole
- How Dogs Get The Point: What Enables Canines To Interpret Human Gestures?
Guest post by: Lucia Lazarowski, PhD candidate. Her research is available via free promotional access in the journal Behavioural Processes until February, 2016. Hi Mia and Julie, As a long-time fan of the blog, it is an honor to be a guest contributor!...
- Can Dogs Really Understand Our Words?
By Linda Cole Anyone who has lived and interacted with dogs knows how closely they pay attention to our words. I've even been known to spell out my intentions in an attempt to keep my dogs from knowing what I'm saying so they don't get overly...
- New Research Explains Why Dogs Aren't Wolves
By Linda Cole I admire the spirit of wolves, an animal who has found the world to be a hostile place, even though man has embraced a species that was born from them. There are similarities between dogs and wolves, but dogs are not wolves. The reason why...
- Are All Dogs Descendants Of Wolves?
By Linda Cole Through responsible breeding and centuries of domestication, dogs are certainly man's best friend. But how much of their ancestral instincts have dogs maintained even with continued breeding that has calmed ancient instincts? I sometimes...
- The Origin Of The Domesticated Dog
The domestic dog, aka Canis lupus familiaris, originated in the domestication of the gray wolf (Canis lupus). The domestication process continues even today, if we consider the fact that the cross-breeding of dogs in order to create "designer dogs"...